Monadnoc
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Posts posted by Monadnoc
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Setting a Design Layer to 1:1 in Vectorworks isn't a good practice. It wasn't originally designed to function that way. And although it has evolved so you now can do that, I personally wouldn't, It tends to cause problems. That is really an AutoCAD way of working. I much prefer VW's way, which is to set the scale of the Design Layer to what you will print at (or create a SLVP at).
I know, working with multiple SLVP's at different scales throws a monkey wrench into that workflow.
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Use Drape Surface
Model > 3D Power Pack > Create Drape Surface
here's a video:
http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/975/Drape+Surface
Although I just gave it a try (in VW 2011) and couldn't get it to work right. Buggy as heck, or I'm doing something wrong ...
Just tried up-ing the U and V points to 200 and it seemed to work much better, but still very buggy. Ignored some geometry and it doesn't work well at all for "air space", so it doesn't look like you can get that sagging canvas cover look you want (and what they describe in the Help). A bit of false advertising there for this one. Maybe a better name would be "Shrink Wrap", as that's what it seems to do.
Maybe someone else has a better tool, technique, or suggestion...
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Supposedly the new Acrobat Reader does that. The older versions do to except it has to be enabled when saving the original PDF in Acrobat Pro. I found this on an Adobe forum:
"Can I comment on PDFs using the free Adobe Reader?
The short answer is Yes. Get Reader XI.
The long answer is also Yes.
Add Sticky notes and highlights to any PDF using Reader X.
All Commenting and Markup tools are available in Reader XI. So if you haven?t already, update to Reader XI.
In older versions of Reader, the complete set of commenting and drawing markup tools are available if:
If the author has extended the PDF for Reader. Ask the author to save as Reader Extended PDF ( In Acrobat X or XI, File > Save As > Reader Extended PDF > Enable Commenting & Measuring)
PDF is under email review. (Email review automatically extends the PDF for Reader users)
PDF is under a shared review workflow."
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As far as I know, there is no tool or command to do that. I think you'll have to do that manually for each tree. You may want to use the Existing Tree Tool to do it.
Scaling trees is problematic, depending on how detailed the tree model is. Tree leaves tend to stay within the same size range no matter the size/age of the tree. So a ten foot maple has 6 inch leaves. And a hundred foot maple still has 6 inch leaves. Not 60 inch leaves (which is what would happen if you scaled it by 10). There is variation between leaf sizes (and sometimes young saplings do have smaller leaves than mature trees), so you can usually get away with scaling as long as you keep it within 10 or 15%. Maybe 20%.
If you use the generic shapes of the Existing Tree Tool, you avoid that issue. But you'll still have to guess at the tree heights yourself (which may or may not correlate to the diameter of the tree crowns/circles).
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You can also use the "Hide details when layer scale =< 1: " checkbox in the document preferences for design layers without viewports. It can also be added as a toggle icon on the toolbar, "Hide Details".
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I've found a good setting when using either Set 3D View (Control/Command Zero) or a Camera, is setting the viewer or look from height and the target or look to height to be the same (I usually use 6 ft. for both). This gives the least amount of distortion. Having too big a difference between the two heights usually results in those over-distorted 3D renderings so common in the computer world. Walls either leaning way in, or way out.
And for Set 3D View make sure you change Perspective to anything but "Current Setting".
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I usually insert a copy of the window in both walls and then change one of them to an opening once they are both in the right position.
The advantage being that if you need to change position or size you simply select both and edit/move.
I like that way better.
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Hmmm, interesting. I just tried making a Design Layer Viewport and a Sheet Layer Viewport from the view I posted above. The Sheet Layer Viewport displayed perfectly as expected as 2D everything. But the Design Layer Viewport displayed the DTM as 2D Top/Plan view and the building walls layer and the roof layer as 3D Top view. I fiddled around and found that if I opened up the Viewport Layers Properties dialog box and switched any of the visible layers to Invisible, hit the Preview button, then switched it back to Visible, it "fixed" the problem. When I exited out of the dialog box all three of my layers now displayed properly as 2D Top/Plan. I'm guessing this is a bug. I'm on VW2011 so I don't know how it will react on your version. But give it a try. Click on your Layers button for the Viewport, change any visible layer to Invisible, then change it back and see if it displays properly.
I only had to toggle one Visible layer to have it correct all of the layers.
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The DTM should show with only 2D contours in a Top/Plan View, not a zillion triangles.
I would love it if the DTM would do that, but so far when I turn on the layer with the DTM (while in Top/Plan view) I get all the triangles. Must I edit the DTM itself and make the line attribute for the triangles white?
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It should all be automatic. The DTM is a hybrid object similar to Symbols, in that in Top/Plan view you get a 2D display and in all others a 3D display. Are you sure you're in Top/Plan view and not Top view?
Here is a screenshot of what a DTM should look like in Top/Plan view, and also one with the settings for that particular DTM.
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The DTM should show with only 2D contours in a Top/Plan View, not a zillion triangles.
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Thanks. It sure is nice having you on board JimW.
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Yes, VW needs to get on the train. Pretty much all of the other CAD programs already export directly to U3D. Bentley/Microstation was the first I think (they helped develop it). Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on it. Read through the list of programs that export to it at the bottom. Every player is on it (including Allplan and Archicad), except VW:
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The old way was to notch out the wall without the window in it using the 3D Reshape tool (add a few vertices to the wall). Fairly fast and simple, but there may be a better, more direct way now.
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I haven't tried it myself, but the free opensource Meshlab software can import DAE or 3DS and export U3D (for a 3d pdf). It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Worth a try. It's been on my list of programs to check out for a while.
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net
It would be very very nice if VW could export U3D itself.
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I would use Unified View instead of linked layers. A Layer Link is the old way of doing it.
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The Import > Sketchup command does not import textures. The recommended workflow if you want the textures is to export out of Sketchup as 3ds. Never tried it so I don't know the tricks required.
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It's hit and miss with importing a 3ds file into VW and getting the textures. 3ds is an old file format and has some limitations, especially with file names. I think what program it was exported out of influences how well VW imports it too. With models found on the web I've found some work, some don't. After some experimenting with exporting from Cinema 4D, I found a few things that can make or break it. One, the texture image source has to be named with 8 letters or fewer, with no spaces. And should be either png or jpg for best results, but I've also gotten tif to work. Two, in C4D the Material name has to be 15 letters or less for it to work. Third, the source texture files (the 8 letter pngs or jpgs that were assigned to the Material) have to be located in the same folder you export the 3ds file into. If all three are met I've had success 100% of the time. When you import the file into VW, the Material name from C4D becomes the Texture name in VW. Once it is imported into VW you CANNOT SCALE the model, or all the textures fall apart. Just a limitation of VW, not 3ds.
And yes, you can save it as a symbol and use it in the model without losing the textures. Just don't scale it.
Since you can open the file in Form Z, maybe you can tweak things there in terms of file names, reassign the textures, and export as 3ds from there, where you have a little control over the process. I've never used Form Z so I'm not sure how it works compared to C4D.
Good luck. But it can be done.
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I think you should have a look over at MODO interface, it's task specific tabs at the top are amazing, in VW they could be translated as such; Modeling, Annotating, rendering/texturing, page layout...
What they have done is to think of the usual order of tasks that an animator would follow to create sequential tasked tabs that the artist can follow through and easily skip back and forth. Each tabbed page window is customized with the tools specific to it's activities.
It streamlines the workflow and removes clutter.
That sounds like you're describing the Ribbon concept in AutoCAD, Excel, and Word. I personally hate it and find just the opposite - it slows down my productivity. I'm constantly having to switch between the Home tab, Annotations tab, Insert tab, etc. now in AutoCAD (Autodesk removed the option of not using it in R2012). It is a major pain. And a very inefficient workflow for me. I prefer to have all my tools grouped by how frequently I use them, not by associated tasks. This way everything I need is in one place.
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I just tried in a fresh blank file and created a new Image resource and still no luck. It seems to me to be a bug, although a selective one since you and JimW don't experience it. Or maybe a conflict with something on my machine. Unless it's some setting somewhere. But I've looked everywhere and don't see anything that looks related to it to me. I even tried changing from Icon to List view in the RB. Also tried accessing "Export Images" via rt-click and the Resource pull-down menu. Nothing is working. It never calls up a dialog box. Nothing happens after I choose Export Images. But only for Image resources.
And it works fine in VW 2011.
I am on a MacBook Pro and Lion. I'll update my sig.
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Might as well add my 2 cents here ... this is obviously a touchy subject. First off, let me just state clearly I am not trying to paint VW/Nemetcheck as the bad guys, because I don't think they are. They're as forced into the New World Order of yearly releases as any of us. And I truly appreciate the effort they put into making VW 2014 a stable release and their devoting staff to this forum. And I personally don't upgrade my OS (I'm still on Lion) just because I know/assume both VW 2011 and Cinema 4D 12 will not run predictably on anything newer. Software companies in general, and VW in particular, never support more than one version behind. And that for only something really, really major. Basically, the current release is what gets support. I've never liked that but I accept it as reality. and I work around it. My choice.
BUT ... (you knew there was a but coming), the problem for me, and I suspect many, many others, came with the switch to yearly releases (and I'm not picking on VW for this. Everyone does it now. And I equally hate it for everyone). When new releases were on a 3 to 4 year cycle (sometimes 5) it didn't matter if they only supported one prior release. That was enough to cover 90 percent of their customers. OS's weren't released that frequently. But, in my opinion, if you switch to a one year release cycle then you need to also switch to supporting at least three versions back. Maybe even four. It's just fair. And good business sense. You are getting a lot of people mad at you by not doing it. And you will lose customers. It's as simple as that. As a business you may not like that reality, but that is the reality. Just like as customers we don't like the reality of yearly releases. But that is the reality. For both of us. Plain and simple. We don't like yearly releases due to unresolved bugs and non-support of ongoing OS upgrades, you don't like supporting past releases because there are way too many to keep track of. I sympathize with your plight. All I'm asking is for you to sympathize with mine. And asking people to join subscription services is not going to make us any happier.
And I realize many users are fine with yearly releases and subscriptions. It fits their business model. But many are not. So what are we gonna do about it? Because something has to be done. Yearly releases aren't sustainable for a lot of customers, myself included, unless three or four previous versions are supported. That's the only way out of this mess. And it is a mess. I hope you consider it.
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I just tried again and nothing on VW 2014 demo. It is the the Vw 2012 file Franklin posted above, so maybe it is a conversion issue? I'll try with a fresh file when I have time.
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I'm on OS X 10.7.5
My sig is out of date.
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I tried Extract Image on the Image resource in VW 2014 demo and it does nothing. I tried it in VW 2011 and it worked fine. So is this a bug in 2014? Can anyone else Extract Image from an Image in VW 2014?
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I originally tried that but it didn't work. I'll give it another go.
Thanks.
Drap canvas covering
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Monadnoc
Good video. I went back and tried it again and Drape Surface is behaving much better today, but still far from perfect. My problem is that it is draping "inside" the geometry, or "under" the geometry for more complicated structures. I tried it with a post and beam frame and it draped about two feet below the beams. The only way I could get it to stay on top of the beams is increase the vertices to where it shrink wrapped the object. Which wasn't the look wanted. When using simple objects it does create nice organic shapes, but nothing you could use as a dust cover, as the objects poke through.